


Have Yourself a Merry Little (Belated) Christmas

by StarlightAfterAStorm



Series: A Love That Will Last [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Darcy Stark AU, Dinner Party, F/M, Family, Gen, Gift Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightAfterAStorm/pseuds/StarlightAfterAStorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony and Pepper finally return to New York, the Tower, and Darcy. An impromptu dinner party is had. And gifts are exchanged.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Have Yourself a Merry Little (Belated) Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Here is another little something. Un-betaed so all mistakes are mine. I hope you enjoy.

 

“Well if you wanna sing out, sing out...” Darcy murmurs the lyrics to herself as she curls up on her couch in her new apartment in Stark Tower, just waiting. “And if you wanna be free, be free...”

“It’s been a long time since I heard you sing that.” 

Darcy’s head snaps up at the new voice. She turns her head upside down over the arm of the couch to look at the intruder standing in her doorway. 

“Hey! Dad, you came to visit. Finally.”

“Hey, Kid.”

Tony steps in, giving her a self-deprecating smile while raising his brow at the interesting choices she’d made for her living space. A mint wavy pattern for the kitchen, burgundy red for the rest of the walls, dark plum carpeting shot through with lighter threads of lavender and a lime green couch. 

“Why do none of the chairs match?”

Darcy rolls her eyes. “BECAUSE, I got them at some flea markets and bargain sales. Duh.”

“You know if you ever need money, you only have to ask for my credit card. Or use Jarvis to hack into my bank account directly. “

“Please, I don’t need J to do all the work for me. I can do it myself y’know? Right J?”

“Correct, Miss Darcy.”

“And besides, we’ve had this convo before. I’m not gonna be a leech. Although I wouldn’t say no to a few splurges now and then.” 

She grins crazily at him and he returns in kind. 

“So where’s Pep? And to what do I owe this lovely visit after so long?”

Tony grimaces a little at the thought of why he’d been unable to return to New York, “She’s coming up. And I brought you some Crack Rock.”

“Rock Candy.”

“Whatever. Same thing.”

Darcy giggles a little through her mouthful of rock candy, which turns into a squeal when she spots the redhead coming through the door. 

“Pep!” 

She launches herself into Pepper’s arms and the taller woman folds her own arms gracefully over Darcy. Pepper places a motherly kiss onto the top of her head. 

“It’s so good to see you again Darcy. We’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve misthed you guysh stoo. Are you hungry? I can make shomesthing to eat?”

Tony jolted in place, “You know what, you guys start on the cooking and the food and whatnot and I’m gonna go pop upstairs to go see how Bruce is doing.” He tosses the bag filled with more candy on the counter. 

Darcy and Pepper both give him eerily similar slitted eye stares, but they let it pass with a “Invite him for dinner too! He never eats enough.” And with a kiss on the cheek for both of them, Tony’s gone. 

Darcy can’t stop smiling. 

Pepper settles herself in one of the mismatched cushioned stools at the countertop while Darcy opens up the fridge, the rock candy stick hanging from her mouth. She pulls out a package and a handful of vegetables. Darcy turns back to Pepper, weighing each hand with her lips pursed in thought. 

“What are we feeling tonight? Pasta or fish?” 

“Hmm, pasta.”

“Pasta it is then.” 

“So how is working here at the Tower?”

Darcy is all smiles as she assembles all the ingredients for a simple chicken pesto pasta. 

“It’s great! Well, aside from trying to hide the fact that my father owns the building and that’s why I got such a huge apartment, but whatever.”

“You haven’t told Jane?

Darcy shakes her head.

“She thinks it was a mistake. And I mean, I feel bad not telling her, but I don’t think she can handle much more right now. Her brain’s hardwired to her missing boyfriend right now, y’know?”

Pepper nods in response. 

“So are you actually working with her on the whole bridge project or, what have you been doing?”

“Mm, deflecting mostly. There’s really not much for me to do with Jane other than be her lab monkey. So I pretend I’m just hanging around here doing nothing while I’m tinkering in Dad’s lab. Or baking. Also, I’ve been having tea with Dr. B everyday at 3.”

Darcy smiles, amused at her own rhyme. Pepper laughs a little. 

“So how is that going?”

Pepper steals a few of the cashews Darcy decides to use instead of pine nuts, while Darcy drops the fusilli pasta into the salted water. Darcy hums a bit to herself before answering.

“Really well I think. I like the guy. He’s got that snarky mild-mannered Clark Kent thing going on. And we’ve been working our way across the globe in teas. It’s been fun trying to come up with different dessert and snack ideas to go along with them. But I think he suspects more than Jane though. Cuz J’s a little more familiar with me? And cuz I started working with him on a project before realizing a poli-sci major shouldn’t be able to just _get_ the ins an outs of biomedical engineering when gamma radiation is applied. Also, I kind of ranted a bit about how awesome the green energy project for Stark Industries is and I might have gone into a little too much detail for even a groupie.” 

Darcy winces at that recollection. She’d started espousing the exact mechanics of how Stark Tower was hooked up to a clean energy source using new arc reactor research before noticing Bruce’s raised eyebrow. 

“Well that’s alright isn’t it?” Pepper answers, “Is the fact that Tony’s your father a secret from him? SHIELD already knows. We might as well let the the rest of the Avengers (and Jane) know.”

Darcy nods, “It’s just that, keeping Dad a secret for 15 years, minus Charlie, makes it second nature.” Darcy starts to put the ingredients in a blender, motioning for Pepper to push the pulse button while she turns to get the chicken out of the fridge. “Anyway, we can tell Dr. B tonight if Dad can pry him out of the lab. And Jane if we can pull her out of her lab. Ooh, I still have some leftover cheesecake from this afternoon. We paired it with some Darjeeling. We can have the rest for dessert.”

Pepper takes the time as Darcy is puttering around the kitchen, checking the pasta, putting the chicken on the grill top of her professional range and shredding cheese, to admire her. Darcy’s grown up into a slightly clumsy, but otherwise graceful young woman. She’s full of smiles and her dark brown hair is glossy, curly, perfectly framing her face with it’s smooth milky skin and red, red lips. This gorgeous young woman in front of Pepper now is a far cry from the skinny, little 6 year old she’d first met. The porcelain doll Pepper helped break out of her box. 

Darcy is still babbling a little, talking a mile a minute as Pepper occasionally responds when Tony opens the door, dragging a hesitant Bruce behind him. 

“I have returned and I have been successful in my journey! I bring back my conquest!”

Darcy snorts a little at Tony’s use of the word “conquest”. “Well I hope the champion is hungry for we have a feast awaiting him.”

She motions Dr. B over to the dining table while she grabs the large skillet holding the pasta smothered in pesto and cheese. Darcy knocks her head to the side to her dad to grab plates. Tony merely stares at her, his arms folded across his chest until Pepper swats him in the back of his head. He gives her a baleful look but moves to grab plates and utensils.

“Ooh, wait a sec,” Darcy carefully sets down the pan on a tea towel before scooping up the sliced chicken and carefully fanning it across the top. Then she grabs the garlic bread roasting in the oven and arranges it on a platter she hands off to Pepper. Satisfied with the way everything looks and smells, she picks it up the pasta again in order to set it down gingerly in the center of the dining table. “Okay, dig in!” 

She whirls around for a second as they help themselves to the food and grabs a giant jug of fresh apple cider from the fridge, pouring it into wine glasses she places in front of her guests. 

“Really? Apple juice?” Darcy scrunches her nose at her dad. 

“This looks great Darcy.” Pepper interjects, taking an appreciative bite of bread. Bruce smiles and agrees with her in his quiet way. Tony grunts in reply as he stuffs his face. 

“Thanks Pep. And Bruce. And I’m assuming you’re fine with the food by the way you’re inhaling it, _Tony_.”

Tony’s head jerks a little at the use of his given name coming out of her mouth, something that rarely happens since they’re never in public together and she’s called him “Dad” since she was 10. But his only response to Darcy’s is to give a thumbs up and stick another forkful of pesto pasta in his mouth. As quick as his recovery is though, Bruce catches the hesitancy.

“So, you guys seem a little... familiar.”

The not-quite-question, almost-a-statement, curiosity-laden-sentence makes Darcy’s jaw clench a little and everyone else at the table to freeze. 

“Yeah well,” Tony emerges from his food binge to answer the almost-a-question Bruce has presented him. “I would hope I’d be familiar with my own kid.”

And that answer is so typically Tony; a little offhand, a little callous even. Thrown out as a sort of afterthought but layered so deeply, that even Darcy can’t see to the bottom. Because the truth is, Tony almost _didn’t_ get to know Darcy. And there were many moments even after they’d met where they’d almost lost each other, for one reason or another. 

“Your kid? She’s your kid? You’re his kid?” Bruce looks a little stunned at the revelation, turning his head between them. Darcy nods in agreement.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you before Dr. B but... illegitimate love-child and all that jazz, y’know?”

“It’s alright Darcy. Some things make more sense now. Like the fact that your apartment takes up a whole floor for one. And your inside knowledge of StarkTech.”

Bruce also gets his own floor to himself but Darcy figures that’s because that way no one could be in the line of fire if he ever Hulked out. The other living spaces for the Avengers are separated out. Tony had planned it so that “the two spies” could share one large apartment on their own floor. But the apartment is also a two bedroom; just in case they weren’t actually sleeping together (which of course they totally are, but, appearances). 

The floor with Thor and Steve holds two apartments with a hallway separating them. Steve rarely comes to stay. He prefers to brood in his Brooklyn apartment. But he came to visit Bruce once. And Darcy ran into him when she was bringing in the tea tray. After taking a small moment to fangirl over him (just a _little_ ), Darcy insisted that Steve stay long enough for tea at least. Darcy is determined to take him on a tour of “New” New York. She’s hoping she doesn’t overstep her boundaries by thinking that, but she’s never been the “boundary” type anyway. 

Currently Jane is the one living in what will be Thor’s apartment. It’s not like he’ll object to her already being settled in when he finally makes it back from Asgard, but Jane was super embarrassed by the implications. 

“Ooh speaking of Jane, maybe I should go and drag her up here!”

Pepper gives her a weird look and Bruce scrunches his forehead to try and figure out how she went from “her apartment” to “Jane”. 

“Sorry, I was thinking of how the apartments were all laid out for the Avengers and how Jane’s living in Thor’s place. Hey, J?”

“Yes, Miss Darcy?”

“Can you see where Jane is and if she’s in one of her science hurricanes?”

“Certainly, Miss Darcy. One moment please...”

Darcy and Tony started humming the Jeopardy theme song. 

“If I may, Doctor Foster is currently in the middle of a shower, but she has informed me that she will be on her way as soon as she is finished.”

“Thanks, J!”

“My pleasure, Miss Darcy.”

Tony scowled up at the ceiling, “Why is he always so nice to you?

“Because I’m nice to him back.” 

Bruce looked between the two, a Darcy with her tongue stuck out and a Tony who’s copied her movements. His gaze goes back to Pepper who has a long suffering look on her face, but a smile tipping the edges of her mouth. He feels a little on the outside. He’s not a part of this family. That’s not anything completely new, but still something that makes him feel a little uncomfortable. 

Darcy is her father’s daughter though, and catches on quick. All three of them do. 

“So, Dr. B, what took you guys so long to get down here? It should _not_ have taken Dad an hour to get you down here.”

“Oh. Well, your dad wanted to see what I was working on at the moment and we kind of lost track of time.”

Darcy rolls her eyes, “Typical Dad.”

“I’m sorry,” Bruce starts, “But aren’t you the same person who went off on a tangent about a new design for the arc reactor and green energy? Using it to power the whole city instead of just one building?”

Darcy smiles sheepishly, scarlet blooming over her cheeks. 

“Ha! The raven chides blackness!”

“What?”

“Ignore him, Tony’s been reading Shakespeare again. ‘In order to prepare for Thor’s return’ he says”

This leads into a discussion of this idiom versus “pot calls the kettle black” and where they originated. Bruce is surprisingly knowledgable about certain idioms as well as Aesop’s Fables. Tony quite likes “The Ass’s Brains”. Pepper thinks he should take a look at “The Boasting Traveler”. Bruce quietly admits that he’s taken a shine to “The Cage Bird and the Bat”, which almost brings down the mood of the party. Darcy is in the middle of reciting “The Jay and the Peacock” when Jane knocks on the door.

“Darcy? Jarvis said something about dinner?” Jane pokes her head through the unlocked door. “Oh. I didn’t realize you had other company as well. Hello, Mr. Stark.”

“I told you when you first got here, Foster, call me Tony.” Tony drawls out from the head of the table, swirling the juice in his glass, and looking for all the world like a king holding court. 

“Yeah, cuz saying it like that s’gonna make her feel more comfortable around you.” Darcy murmurs under her breath. Tony winks in response. 

Jane, still a little uncomfortable sits in the empty seat next to Darcy and across from Bruce. She smiles a little shyly a the older scientist who returns it with a small smile of his own. Darcy places a plate in front of her to help herself and Jane starts to portion out her food. 

“So, Foster. What have you been up to? Anything new to report about your rainbow bridge?”

Darcy kicks Tony under the table. He glares back at her. Jane fumbles a little with the spoon, but Darcy can see the way her eyes harden a little bit. 

“I think I’m almost there. It feels so close, but every time I feel like I’ve got it, the simulator breaks down. Just... Just a few more months maybe.”

Tony nods in acceptance.

“Yeah, shame we didn’t ask Point Break about it when he was here. Loki joked about Odin using some dark magic to fix the rift, but... y’know. Loki. That’s great though! We can get Fabio back and you guys can get rid of that unrequited sexual tension.”

“Da-Tony! Not cool.” Darcy makes the same joke all the time. But it’s not cool when Jane doesn’t really know Tony. And Tony only knows Jane secondhand. 

“Really, Tony?” 

Tony shrugs, unrepentant. Bruce just rubs his temples a little. Jane latches on to the one piece, Darcy didn’t really want her to focus on.

“Darcy, what were you gonna call him? You started saying something and changed it to ‘Tony’.”

Darcy grimaces at her slip up. She did say that she was gonna tell Jane, but they’d just finished telling Bruce and she hadn’t expected to go through this conversation again so soon. 

“Umm, yeah. About that.” Darcy looks into Pepper’s eyes for support. And then to Tony’s. She finds it there in both of their eyes. Swinging her head back to Jane, “Yeah. I was gonna call him ‘Dad’. Cuz Tony Stark is kind of my dad.”

Jane pauses for a beat, processing the new information. And then the explosion comes. 

“ _Tony Stark_ is your father? _Tony Stark_ is your father! He... you... what?” 

“See, that was basically my reaction too.” Bruce chimes in. 

“I think you should pick your jaw off the ground Jane.”

Jane snaps her mouth shut before turning back to her food and stabbing the pasta with a fork.

“I mean, it kind of makes sense now.” She looks back to Darcy before stuffing her mouth full of noodles. “I _thought_ you guys hit it off really well when we moved in here.” More stabbing. “But I just thought that, ‘y’know Darcy’s really nice with everyone.’ I didn’t expect anything like this!” More mouthful of noodles. “How could you keep this from me?” Stabby, stabbity, stab. 

Darcy winces before moving to placate her friend. “I’m sorry Jane. Really I am. But you get why I’ve kept it a secret right? I mean, it’s not like I can just go running down the streets, yelling ‘Tony Stark’s my dad!’. I’d probably get locked in an insane asylum. Or get mega-rich selling the story to the press. Hmm. I never really considered that option before.”

Jane pauses stabbing, looks at Darcy, pouts a little, but resignedly nods her head. 

“I get it. I do. I just wish you’d told me sooner. Like when we moved into the Tower.”

Darcy gives Jane a hug. “Sowwy. Really sowwy. I’ll take us out to dinner tomorrow. My treat. Well technically Dad’s treat cuz I’ll use his name to get us into some swanky restaurant with ridiculously overpriced but still delicious food.”

Tony looks up at that, “Oh. So you’ll take my card out and use my name to get reservations and pay for food but you won’t use my money to pay for matching chairs? Chairs that won’t blind you from the neon brightness of them?”

“...Yup!” 

Tony threw his hands up in the air, “Nice to see I installed some priorities in you, Kid.”

“Hey, would you rather I spend the money on a huge shopping spree? Cuz I still can you know. Pepper, Jane and I could do some serious damage.”

The conversation from there devolves into comfortable banter about how much the Stark Fortune is actually worth. (Considering Stark Industries paid for most of the repairs to New York and rebuilt the Malibu House after rebuilding Stark Tower, it’s a _considerable_ amount.

Bruce chokes a little when Tony mentions how many vintage cars he owns and has repaired. Jane gets bright eyes when she and Tony start discussing new equipment for her lab and buying new parts for her to _make_ new equipment herself. Darcy does Pepper a favor by straying away from sciencey topics and regaling her with more tales of her adventures since coming to stay at the Tower.

Before long the pasta is all gone, the cheesecake demolished and cups are empty of all beverages. Jane and Bruce bid goodnight to the trio and head back to their rooms, but not before Jane informs Darcy she's holding her to her promise of good food and good Tony Stark gossip.

Tony sinks tiredly into the plushness of the round scarlet love seat, next to the lime green couch. Pepper settles herself mostly in his lap, her legs thrown sideways over his. Darcy runs into her bedroom with wrapped presents before coming back out. She turns around the sky blue gigantic bean bag to face them and throws herself down before wiggling around to get herself comfortable. 

“Merry belated Christmas! Here’re you’re presents!”

Pepper takes both wrapped boxes before exchanging them for a slim blue box wrapped with a silver bow. The Tiffany logo glows on the cover.

“Dad!” Darcy doesn’t really wear too much jewelry. A pair of earrings sometime. A necklace almost always. Hardly ever rings or bracelets. But the box is too small for a necklace and too big for earrings or rings. It must be a bracelet. 

But Darcy’s biggest issue is that she still doesn’t feel too comfortable getting spoiled with frilly things like jewelry, as much as she jokes about spending all her dad’s money. Barbara and her friends always gave her things like that. Tony was always a little more practical. 

“You open yours first. Then I’ll open mine.” 

Pepper smiles before taking the wrapping paper off methodically, seam by seam, 

“Really Pep?”

Soon enough, the wrapping is off. And in the center is a soft, soft, lavender cashmere wrap, large enough to be a small blanket almost, but perfect for the cold weather season. The ends are slightly fringed and the threading is a darker purple. Pepper thanks Darcy and wraps it around herself and Tony immediately. Darcy thinks that they look like two snuggling bunnies. 

Tony unwraps his present next and laughs out loud. Darcy gave him a mug shaped like Iron Man’s head, red and yellow and all angles. But the best part is the engraving on the inside bottom of the mug. The engraving only Tony will see after draining his cup to the dregs. 

Tony Stark #1 Dad

“I actually made that myself in the lab. And then hand painted it. LIke the ones kids make for their parents when they’re little y’know? But I never got the chance to before, so... I thought I’d give it to you this year. Except I didn’t _know_ you were gonna stop being Iron Man. So... sorry about that.”

Tony shakes his head, touched. Not that he’d ever admit it out loud. He doesn’t really have to though. But he kind of does anyway.

“Nah, it’s ok Kid. I kind of like it. It's a good likeness.” 

Now it’s Darcy’s turn. She opens up the box to find a pretty bracelet like she was expecting. Pepper must have picked it out and Pepper does have excellent taste after all. 

They’re stars. 

Little stars linked haphazardly together. And on either side of where the clasp meets, there are two oddly shaped pieces of metal. Different sizes and a little faceted. Like they’re broken pieces of something. 

“We picked out the bracelet because you’ve been studying the stars for so long.” Pepper elaborates. She nudges Tony to explain the metal pieces. 

“Yeah. And the metal next to the clasps. They’re... well... they’re some pieces of shrapnel. The ones I got removed from my chest.” Tony won’t look Darcy in the eye. Instead, he’s looking at Pepper, twirling his fingers through her hair and fiddling with the chain of the necklace she’s wearing. Now that Darcy looks more closely, it’s a new necklace for Pepper too. A red ruby heart surrounded by diamonds and flanked by shrapnel like the one on Darcy’s new bracelet. 

“Tony gave me the necklace for Christmas. And  we thought the bracelet would be a little more inconspicuous for you to wear every day.”

Darcy can’t say anything. She’s too choked up. She’s looking from the bracelet in her hands and to the pretty necklace around Pepper’s neck. 

“Thanks. Thanks Dad.” She tosses her head a little to get her bearings back. “I guess you can say, Pepper and I hold pieces of your heart, don’t we?”

Tony’s mouth twitches before he smiles for real. He tightens his hold on Pepper before answering. On this subject, he’s serious for once. 

“Always, Kid.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really loving exploring this universe. Let me know what you think.


End file.
